Shloka 118

Puṣkara-Śapatha Itihāsa (Agastya–Indra Dispute at the Tīrthas) | पुष्कर-शपथ-आख्यानम्

Devanagari script

भरद्वाज उवाच नृशंसस्त्यक्तधर्मस्तु स्त्रीषु ज्ञातिषु गोषु च । ब्राह्मणं चापि जयतां बिसस्तैन्यं करोति यः

Transliteration

bharadvāja uvāca | nṛśaṃsas tyaktadharmas tu strīṣu jñātiṣu goṣu ca | brāhmaṇaṃ cāpi jayataṃ bisastainyaṃ karoti yaḥ ||

Translation

Bharadvāja berkata: “Ia yang mencuri bisā dipandang kejam dan sebagai orang yang meninggalkan dharma. Ia menanggung noda perilaku berdosa terhadap perempuan, terhadap sanak-kerabatnya sendiri, dan terhadap sapi; dan ia pun memikul dosa mengalahkan seorang brāhmaṇa dalam perdebatan.”

Word by Word

• {'bharadvāja uvāca': 'Bharadvāja said', 'nṛśaṃsaḥ': 'cruel, pitiless, ruthless', 'tyakta-dharmaḥ': 'one who has abandoned dharma

• irreligious', 'tu': 'indeed, but (emphatic particle)', 'strīṣu': 'toward/among women (locative plural)', 'jñātiṣu': 'toward/among kinsmen/relatives (locative plural)', 'goṣu': 'toward/among cows (locative plural)', 'brāhmaṇam': 'a brāhmaṇa (accusative singular)', 'ca api': 'and also', 'jayatām': 'defeating, conquering (in contest/disputation

• participial sense)', 'bisa': 'lotus-stalk, lotus-fibre', 'stainyam': 'theft

• the state/act of stealing', 'karoti': 'does, commits, brings about', 'yaḥ': 'who (relative pronoun)'}

Speaker

भरद्वाज उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bharadvāja
• brāhmaṇa
• women (strī)
• kinsmen/relatives (jñāti)
• cows (go)
• lotus-stalk (bisa)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even seemingly minor theft (here, a lotus-stalk) signals a deeper collapse of dharma: cruelty, disregard for protected relationships (women, kin, cows), and irreverence toward brāhmaṇas. The verse stresses that ethical failure is measured not only by the object stolen but by the disposition and social harm it reveals.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction-focused setting, the sage Bharadvāja delivers a moral judgment: he characterizes the thief of a lotus-stalk as cruel and dharma-abandoning, and he enumerates the associated sins—misconduct toward women, relatives, and cows, and the fault connected with overcoming a brāhmaṇa in disputation.